ACW Display Base Done & Doner

Well, after much farting and faffing about I'm calling it finished. It's has got to the point if I didn't stop now I never would, once I get a handle on this smarty pants type of basing it will get easier.

So few photo's, tell me if it stinks or not I'm a big boy I can handle it, besides I know how to delete 8-]  Comments or criticize.

I should have moved the drummer behind the charging figure on his left (our right), the drummer would have still been making eye contact with the falling soldier. At the same time moving the charging figure closer to the officer making the eye contact between those two figures stronger.

I'm still not perfectly happy with the greens but they do look a whole lot better, I tried to avoid kitch by avoiding high lighting the grass with yellows opting for a very pale grey green for the buffalo grass.

In the areas where there is a slight depression or hollow I have removed some of the gravel and given the surface a wash of brown to darken and coat of gloss medium to give it a wet muddy look. The photos look a little washed out, must be because i took the outside, hmmm.

That's it folks, more detailed pictures will be posted tomorrow those one interested, in the Making Bacon section.

regards
Paint Pig

ACW Display Base again

More shenanigans with ballast, wood glue and static grass. My first ever go at fancy basing, if it doesn't have sand for flock and a lick of paint I'm usually not interested. First time for everything.

Not much to say just a quick update. First time using ballast, I think the coarse mixed sand from the river is better, easier to use if the figures are already in place also. 

First time with this "ground up" flock, makes for good moss when mixed with wood glue.

Still using static grass but instead of standing it up I have pressed it down into the glue to make a type of buffalo grass, the type that spreads by sending out runners. I'll work on getting some paint down and have the finished article tomorrow.

regards
Paint Pig


Quick sneak peak before I turn in (pumpkin if your wondering). I was going to wait till I give it the once over tomorrow and fix up some odds and ends. Took a few pics to see how it looked, I find photos reveal a lot my eyes cant see in real life, so here's a quickie sampler.

regards
Paint Pig

SYW/WAS Artillery Piece

With my small order from Eureka last week I thought I would take a look at their light artillery/battalion guns for SYW/WAS. This is from the WAS range from memory, noted as a 3lb-er. Like the rather groovy musketeer girly girl sample the detail is economical but not worryingly so.

For someone who isn't into counting every little detail and spends more time looking at his toys at arms length than under a magnifying glass then I think this is fine for me.

The barrel looks good and the shield motif is large enough for the hyper detailers to toss their magic.  I'll admit to farting about with painting the barrel trying out different ideas, in reality it is probably a mil smaller in diameter?

Barrel sits a little crooked, I could have fixed this up in the gluing but to be honest I didn't notice until I saw the photo!

And the reverse angle for all you reverse angle enthusiasts. I was originally going to paint the carriage white! Quite frankly even if that is the original colour of the Hesse Cassoulet artillery it wouldn't stay white for long once in the field. I contacted the Erzherzog and explained, the heads of army were consulted and couldn't decide if they wanted a light powder blue or equivalent in grey green so I decided on a light powder blue wash over a glazes of grey green and black.

ACW Display Base

Well I have finally got around to basing up some of the ACW I bored the pants off you with while I was painting them. The base has been waiting a good two weeks, but I have said before the paintpig has a limited attention span.

Started roughing in with some wood filler and some basic ideas here. Went for a wander down the crick to find some smooth stones to replicate worn granite boulders poking their noses up above the ground

Haven't filled in right up to the top of the base on the figures yet, give the glue some room to fully cure. Tomorrow I'll fill in any obvious divets and knock the top off of any little peaks before the static grass and what ever else I think of goes down.

Picked up a few twigs from my favourite twig gathering tree. You cant see from this debris which I have broken up, but the die back from this particular tree is like having an armature dispenser, heaps of ready made trees just add flock. That's all folks till tomorrow by which time I should have some flocking idea of what I'm doing.

regards
Paint Pig

Eureka Sample Piece

I don't know what of though, the writing on the bag was smudged, sample smudge uniform, I think it might be a chick though that'll be tough on the rest of the guys? Anyway, I thought I might slap some paint on it and see how the little blighter came out, the theory being it would make a reasonable addition to the Imagi Nation forces if I could find a niche for girly musketeers. Be that as it may I'm using it to model my first Imagi Nation uniform.

Not a great photograph, sorry, the figure is quite nice has reasonable detail, good proportion and most importantly doesn't have a fat head or elephantine hands.  A fair match for Mindens, RSM and possibly HE. The figure isn't heavy on detail and folds in costume so if your a painter that relies on these for your paint job you may struggle (once again similar to Minden and Old School brands), traditional toy soldier and old school styles will work with this. I've painted this in my wash and glaze style (white undercoat) and I struggled a little bit at first, used more outlining than is normal for me but persistence paid of. A nice shiny 8-P  version of my take on traditional or old school not my best work of photograph for that matter, what does matter is she came in handy for for a job that had to be done. Hmmmmm, now if I could get another 23 samples...............

The New EvE Blog At Last

It has taken nearly three weeks but my new Emporer vs Elector blog is up and underway, The Hesse Cassoulet Chronicles. There is a storyline (my biggest holdup)  roughly sketched out and the first few snippets have been posted the interaction is up to The Erzherzog Rudoph Dascher Hansuppen II von Hessiansacken hausen Landgraf von Hesse Cassoulet and his lusty wife Erzherzogin Viktoria Ellen Hansuppen Raugrafin von ze Tittanmuff.

Rudolph II Landgraf von
Hesse Cassoulet

Viktoria Raugrafin von
ze Tittanmuff 

Izzak Gimnebulin

All is duly chronicled by Izzak Grimnebulin (aka Paint Pig). How many people can count the early 18th century as their entry into wargaming, I suspect quite a few, my hand is up. You cant shake a good thing and as this is about the only gaming I'll be doing in the foreseeable future so it can jolly well have its own blog. All the painting chatter will still take place on Paint Pig as before.



thanks
PP

Re-organising the sty, the paint chest goes in the big house

Welcome into the the big house, I had a bit of a clean-up and rejigg'n of the painting zone today. I need to paint inside during summer which is always the case anyhow but it also seems that I do less and less work under the house in my old workshop due to the lighting and a low attention span.

My trough or painting table, look ancient citadel pots and a Ral Partha
pot! This is my indoors set up, special cleaned for photo's. 

So instead of going up and own the stairs to get bits paraphernalia all the time I decided on a permanent shift to my big house painting trough.

My corner of the east sun room with extra lights set up, the rest of the
 room is used for storing furniture as we renovate room by room,
this will be the last room renovated.  Safe for a while yet.

My spot is in the corner of one of the sun rooms, the windows face east so its pretty good for light and these old houses in this area have frosted and stained glass window so the light is diffused.

Usually have the windows open in the afternoon but it was a stinker
today and 70% humidity. The beast and the drawers of mystery

Photos were taken about half three in the afternoon, still plenty of light. In the back ground is my paint chest (tool box) which I dragged upstairs today, the damn thing was just about empty except for a few dried out paint pots and my air brushes (lord knows when they were last used) and had been sitting down there gathering dust the last year and a half.

The red beast

Come to Daddy, this has proved an awesome paint chest over the years, a cheap flat pack toolbox and trolley. Lots a drawers for lots of bits n' bobs,  pots and tools, plus the large space in the bottom for all the spray cans and bigger items.  The old chest of drawers alongside came up from the old work space too, it houses all my basing gear and odds and ends I might find that may be useful for base junk and a lot of figures that are on the periphery of becoming WIP's. The grey magazine boxes are where I keep my revolving WIPS (short attention span), gee only 7 boxes of WIP'n at the moment.

GOOD NEWS the missing hand for the Tudor chappy that I had painted in oils was inside the red beast as was a three pack of GW LOTR elves which I thought I had turfed, weeeeee.

WSS Prinz done

What a chore, this figure and his two mounted guard have been so close to finished, yet they seemed determined to prolong the event. As it is I only have one of the guard finished to photograph because for some reason glue got all over the other! What with trying to make a wonky face paint up normal, sneezing and having the brush go sliding across the figure, and paint go everywhere, dropping figures and getting carpet fibre all over the wet paint, the list is endless. Five days of belligerent purposeful neglect has nearly come to an end they must be finished, and here they are....almost.

One of the bewtifuly wuggged guardsmen who the ginger Prinz likes to with ride with all day

The man himself made up and clearly out for a ride. Don't be fooled though he doesn't ride with any old Tom or Harry it clearly has to be Richard.  The Prinz is one of my characters in the Emporer vs Elector saga or the Hesse Cassoulet Chronicles

WSS WIP ........his excellency and troopers

A quick montage of his Excellency the Ducque  de Broccoli, at some point I had a brain fart and decided the Ducque would be wearing his purple velvet inspecting the troops coat and had to adjust accordingly.

The Ducque clearly has a face only a mother could love. It is reported he has been seen in de Saxes company and may have contracted a "dose" at one of his Bohemian orgies! The resulting bloating of the gills could be explained by such a report being proven.

There is still a bit more work to go yet, I haven't even applied his riding make up or gilded his lace blah, blah, blah......

The Ducques bodyguard, hand picked (literally) men from the Regiment Royal. 

These are much closer to completion with the flesh and breast plate needing the majority of attention.

regards

Paint Pig

WSS WIP ........an 'orse is a horse of course of course

Update on the horses with a view and step by step.

Both have had two or three light washes of tan over the base coat. The base on the left is white primer with a heavy dark brown wash on the right grey primer (see previous WSS post for pictures of base coats), both then received a wash of a mixture of tan/dark brown. This was necessary to add some shade to to the mini on the right. The mini on the left had the same mix and this muted the stark contrast between the shade and tan.

Mid brown washes to tails and manes on both miniatures, horse on the left received the mid brown was also, why, cause I felt like it......... was it a mistake? I thought so until I varnished them.

Nice coat of semi gloss varnish (not quite gloss not quite satin) and they dont look half bad, should do the trick. Now where did I put the riders?

Oh yeah I nearly forgot the Ducke de Broccoli here he is then. Sounds just the thing for an Imagi-nation.

Grey primer again given a brown black wash before receiving pretty much the same treatment as above. Didn't plan ahead properly and ended up with some awful dry brushing on the socks, tail and mane. I will have to go back in and fix that, so his exalted excellency is not disgraced.

ACW Getting the basing underway

Having got my little collection of acw soldiers painted it was time to think about the basing, I have decided to base them in two little vignettes.

The first is this little collection of Union soldiers charging, charging what? You decide, I'm just happy with charging. This is the final set up, I juggled them around a bit to get the right feel but I think this works for me with eye contact between 4 of the figures.

These few Confederates were always destined to end up in a vignette unfortunately we went a man down and things look a bit sparse with three. the vignette is of the 22nd Alabama Inf. on their last charge at Chickamauga, Pvt Braswell bearing the standard recieved multiple wounds and the colours captured. Full story of the days events can be found on the Pigs Might Fly page. As you can see I have tried positioning the two infantry men at different angles and am not convinced which works best, probably the bottom two I think. Any suggestion or comments are welcome.

The bases are almost finished, they just need a couple more coats of lacquer for a nice deep sheen. Both have painted finishes the one above obviously has a scattering of gold flake while the one below has a light dry brushing of light grey which was then stained red.

regards
PP

SYW Front Rank

I have half a dozen Front Rank figures that I should finish along with the WSS chaps from the previous post.

The Figures are in the style and uniform of the Guard, the above is being prepared to join the French Guarde. Grey primer with a paynes Grey Wash. Painting will be in the contemporary style to appease the Heathens.  8-]

These Little blokes have already started kitting out with the Guarde Suisse uniform. The difference in undercoat was a lil experiment (no animals and only a few children were hurt) looking at how undercoats effect washes and base coats and should be ignored, ...now.

thanks
Paint Pig

WSS WIP ......painting figures in the classic style

I have ordered a couple of pieces from sash and sabre castings for my next project and while I await their arrival I have dug out theses WSS figures for some more of the  classic look I have been developing with the ACW mini's lately.

These are Dixon figure again, .......I think, ........don't quote me just yet :-/
The centre figure, the commander is no doubt familiar to anyone with a passion for 18thC gaming, he pops up everywhere.

These GG's are fine looking animals, little do they realise they are about to be used for experiments in painting muah hahahahaaaaa. the lower picture shows the horse with white undercoat and two washes of brown black artist acrylic.

By the way anyone out there in blog land used sash and sabre figures?

thanks
PP

Knights who say Nii

Finished! now don't they look better tidied up? Hair combed, washed behind the ears and under the uh hmmm, straightened shafts, change of small clothes and spit polished helmets.

oink oink
PP

Microsoft makes blogging easier for us Aussies (language warning)

I was going through my picture files today and found an old favourite. Unfortunately this piece of software didn't make past beta testing, it just wouldn't work, which is why most Aussies prefer Macs or Wii/XBox/PS consoles for our serious computing.

cheers
Paintpig

Standard bearer modification

Well this chap is finished too, obviously, unfortunately the figure is quite a poor sample with some rather bad misalignment so it was probably no coincidence he threw his musket away.

That's our boy on the right. From this point on he will be handed over to the Pigs Might Fly page to be kitted out in his new role of standard bearer Pvt. Braswell who met his fate at Chickamauga, follow the above link for the story. The figure on the left is from previous posts following the gradual steps through to completion of the paint job.

These pics were taken prior to changing camera settings and have been taken emulating Agfa Chrome.

cheers
paint pig

25mm Dixon ACW white undercoat, old school. It's a wrap

Well that is it they are done, gee it only took 9 months, a suspected heart attack, cranking high blood pressure, depression and a diabetes diagnosis. I'll work out some basing, probably a vignette if I can think of something, then send em off to make some bacon ........probably.

The final stages for these two minis, I have been following the painting process in a previous post (link)

Here is my ragged reb all signed, sealed (shiny of course) and delivered. I turned the camera settings back to standard as I have had it set to emulate Agfa Chrome for all the previous posts, the Chrome is a somewhat harsh and very sharp type of film (?), gee I liked using Chrome film back int the day when we had film *LOL*.  These have also been shot under natural light which may make them more acceptable.

.......and finally the grim face of war, the reality of the hardship faced by so many valiant and brave sodjers, brother against brother........ pewter against pewter.......... shiny against matte.

enjoy
paint pig